Barnardos takes first steps to Microsoft cloud services with CCL-Revera

Barnardos takes first steps to Microsoft cloud services with CCL-Revera

Barnardos has taken its first steps to Microsoft’s cloud in a move to drive a Microsoft-centred as-a-service transformation.

Working with long-term partner CCL-Revera, New Zealand’s largest children’s charity has kicked off phase one of a staged migration that will see the organisation’s 650 users across 65 sites up and running on productivity and collaboration services from Microsoft Office 365 by the middle of the year.

Other work currently underway includes the deployment of Azure identity and access management services, and a reconfiguration of the organisation’s on-premise Microsoft CRM in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Online.

The organisation’s switch to Microsoft cloud services is the continuation of a strategy to drive down costs and leverage as-a-service technologies, Barnardos chief technology officer Jaco van der Lith said.

“Four years ago we outsourced and virtualised our infrastructure on Revera’s Homeland IaaS platform,” he said. “The move delivered a sensible format for a technology refresh and consolidation, and paved the way for public cloud services.”

While Microsoft’s non-profit pricing plans offered Barnardos a strong incentive to adopt cloud services, a number of the organisation’s business applications, including financial, payroll, and file sharing systems, will continue to run on CCL-Revera’s Homeland IaaS platform for the time being.

The role of both local IT partner and in-country platform services remains a core part of Barnardos’s operation, with the Spark-owned IT services provider continuing to deliver service desk, support, and a wide area network.

“CCL-Revera’s IaaS platform continues to do good work for applications unavailable in Microsoft’s cloud,” van der Lith said. “There’s no real financial benefit to change.”

Working with both CCL and Revera prior to their recent merger announcement, van der Lith described the development as a “good surprise offering complementary strengths”.

“Revera has a great engineering legacy – they build stuff really well and are supported by strong technical teams. Combined with CCL’s detailed customer focus, the merger is a good thing for both organisations – and from the customer perspective,” he said.

Commenting on the merger, CCL-Revera CEO Andrew Allan said client feedback confirmed the complementary nature of the newly-merged businesses.

“Clients place a high value on a broad mix of services and capabilities delivered from a single engagement and support engine,” he said. “We call it the safe hands of a custodian.”